speaking of community college...

I've been grumpy about the lack of teen novels that feature characters who go to community college. But last weekend I got a few advance copies of books, and one of them (Laurie Halse Anderson's Prom) featured a character in community college! And some average students! I was surprised and pleased.
I also read Lauren Myracle's Rhymes with witches. It's not Mean Girls, it's not Flowers for Algernon, and it's not The Chocolate War, but I can see why the book invited comparisons to that movie and those books. I was really hooked while I was reading, impressed directly after I finished, and filled with doubts about plot points three days later. In particular, I'm dying to know: could the *itches steal each other's popularity?

more about Truth

Last time, I forgot to mention the other tremendously irritating thing about Sarah Dessen's Truth About Forever: the main character, Macy, works in a library. I'd read reviewers snarking about the inaccuracies of Macy's library job, and I thought they were hypersensitive librarian reviewers. But no. It really was that annoying - and worse, I was jarred out of the book any time Macy described her work. She, and two other teenagers, worked at some sort of information desk from 9 - 3 every day. No adult staff are ever mentioned. Despite the fact that it's summer, there are no children around. There are three teens working at this desk, but Macy never gets asked questions. Why is she there, then? What library is open not only at nine a.m., but on the Fourth of July?
Anyway, all this distracted me from why I logged on: to rave about Tamora Pierce's latest, Trickster's Queen. Both in Lady Knight and in Trickster's Queen, she has an admirable grasp of tactics and administering an army (or guerrilla forces) - rare in YA literature.

slumming at the caterers

I picked up Sarah Dessen's The Truth about Forever over the weekend. I read a little over half of it, then put it down in disgust. I persuaded myself to finish it yesterday, because quitting on books makes such a bad start to the year, don't'cha know.
Here's why it drove me crazy:
1) I'm so tired of books about uptight college-bound girls (in this case, Macy's only a senior, but she's clearly going to go next year) that feature food service as a pressure valve. As in, "oh, my life is so stressful and hectic with all the things that a Good Girl does - thank God for my part-time job with those wacky catering/coffee shop co-workers, who help me find a more stress-free life!"
1.5) Almost without exception, the catering businesses/coffeeshops/what-have-you are locally owned. Kudos to Ellen Emerson White who, in Life Without Friends, put Beverly into a chain of ice cream shops (one without a wacky staff, even!).
2) The uptight girls nearly always have some talent they're repressing. In Macy's case (that's The Truth about Forever), it's running. Other UGs have suppressed their love of art.
2.5) The subcategory here of "incredibly talented girls who question their vocation" should be mentioned, if not condemned. I like both Freymann-Weyr's The Kings are already here and Ingold's Mountain solo.
3) The UGs always go to four-year schools. Why don't UGs ever go to community college? I'd hard-pressed to think of anyone in teen fiction who goes to one.